Sunday, September 14, 2008

Abstract: The argument based upon what most or all people think or believe is characterized and shown to be sometimes persuasive but normally fallacious.

Argumentum ad Populum (popular appeal or appeal to the majority): The fallacy of attempting to win popular assent to a conclusion by arousing the feeling and enthusiasms of the multitude. There are several variations of this fallacy, one of which is:

"Bandwagon": the fallacy of attempting to prove a conclusion on the grounds that all or most people think or believe it is true.

Shall we hitch on to the Reproductive Health bandwagon?

On Friday, Lagman made a bold statement ahead of the plenary debates on the proposed Reproductive Health bill, also called House Bill 5043.

He said the Catholic Church would be rendering itself “irrelevant” to its flock by continuously opposing the measure and that an overwhelming number of Filipinos “strongly approve the government's allocation of funds for modern contraceptives.”

“If the Catholic Church wants to continue to become significant in the lives of the faithful, (it) must listen to (its) flock or risk becoming irrelevant,” the Albay lawmaker said./Mr. Lagman should know that an overwhelming majority of people also strongly approves of good governance marked by:

- no massive corruption- more allocation of funds for livelihood projects- more allocation of funds for education- more respect for the poor- more honest public servants

from his First Apology

...And this food is called among us Eukaristia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them...